When you are thriving amongst mediocre tastes and below-average performers, no matter how hard you try, your results will never bear fruit. Recently I held a stall at one of the most popular festivals and although the experience was a good learning one, it did leave a lot to be desired. The organisers never gave any honest answers and were permanently just trying to extract more and more money. The service was not good. We had asked for a spotlight, which we never used and needless to say, the money never came back. Also the walls had hooks that were so high that we couldn't hang anything. When we asked to buy a table, it never came and the banner of our stall arrived one and a half day later. I started this project with 5 people who later backed out. I had already invested the money for the stalll. Mid-week I got another partner, who towards the end backed out at the last minute. We had no manpower, nobody to help put up the stall everyday and bring it down at night. We were told the security would be tight at night, but looking at the number of beggars at the place, we had no choice but to rearrange the stall everyday. Everything the organisers claimed was a lie and nothing materialised as we had planned.

The public coming in was also sub-standard. Most of them expressed interest in the items but never had enough money to actually buy something. We cannot lower our standards to meet the requirements and tastes of the common public, which were below par. Eg nobody wanted our purple shades, everyone wanted stuff that was not there. Although India is progressing at rapid pace, INdians do not still possess purchase power, or the ability to buy products. They have neither the means nor the tastes to buy products that would sell hot in the global market.

The price we had to pay for our excellent stall was steep. And looking at the competition surrounding us, we know we emerged winners amongst losers and pathetic competition.